Welcome to our new chaplain

This week, we welcomed our new chaplain to the National Shrine of Saint Jude: Fr Michael Manning, O.Carm. Fr Michael was born in Cambridge and has been a friar of the Carmelite Order since 1991. He is a familiar face at Aylesford where he has been ministering to the pilgrims for a number of years. We now welcome Fr Michael to the Shrine of St Jude, where he is looking forward to meeting you all.

Fr Michael's predecessor, Fr Piet is the Parish Priest for the church attached to the Shrine. We would like to thank Fr Piet very much for all his hard work, kindness, prayers, and love that he has shown all our pilgrims. Fr Piet is looking forward to seeing pilgrims at the Feast celebrations in October. 

We will be producing a full interview with Fr Michael in the next week. 

Fr Michael Manning looking at one of our statues of Saint Jude

Prayer for peace

To mark the centenary of Britain's entry into the First World War, we have lit a candle at the Shrine for the Fallen. Today, the Archbishop of Canterbury (our neighbour) said on Radio 4: "Never again, the slogan after so many wars, requires us to say yes to the words of Jesus who tells us that love for our enemies is in fact the only way to eliminate them. We make them our friends – and change our world forever." Let us pray for peace in the world.